KDF play is "bonus" play, not core. Federation play is the core game. KDF (Romulan, or whatever playable faction they eventually introduce) will never be as complete as Federation play, it would simply require way too much work for them to create for so few -players.
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
D&D DM/Player since 1982 - all versions except the despised 4e
Lets pw just finish up the kdf, I have been a kdf since open beta. Alot more needs to be done. Say Sparing areas in our social areas where players can dual and so forth. A dynaverse style pvp. Fixing the cloaking bugs. And more low end kdf content. And same chances for gear that fed player gets at low lvl.
KDF play is "bonus" play, not core. Federation play is the core game. KDF (Romulan, or whatever playable faction they eventually introduce) will never be as complete as Federation play, it would simply require way too much work for them to create for so few -players.
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
We are not looking for equality to the feds but we do expect meaningful and complete gameplay thats respectful to our fandom within the IP instead of the half assed, "but but the feds are the important players" monster play that we KDF fans feel has been shoved down our throats.
KDF play is "bonus" play, not core. Federation play is the core game. KDF (Romulan, or whatever playable faction they eventually introduce) will never be as complete as Federation play, it would simply require way too much work for them to create for so few -players.
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
KDF was never meant to be so called "bonus" play as you put it, and the blame lays with Atari (and maybe CBS) who pushed STO out of the door too fast, but that's now in the past and people forget how STO/Cryptic have struggled through those years and the work is must have taken to become part of PWE certainly took its toll on overall resources.
Plus, see it from their viewpoint, S6 with its content or story based missions? Honestly, I think they made the correct decision on this as well as starting KDF at level 21 for now as I found level 6 be a real mess. Season 7 is likely the earliest we'll see the lower levels opened up...But I'd like to see the KDF levels out before a Romulan faction hits (and who is to say what form it will take, it is foolish to think otherwise without knowing facts).
Anything other than Fed is always likely to be less popular, but there is certainly growth potential for other factions though, but by how much? Taking population figures from Star Trek fandom? This is a game, not a TV show, its at best a very general guideline and at worst, misguidance.
Even the addition of the Ferasan race has had a positive impact on the population it seems and the fact that these threads keep appearing should tell you something Do you ignore your customers?
KDF play is "bonus" play, not core. Federation play is the core game. KDF (Romulan, or whatever playable faction they eventually introduce) will never be as complete as Federation play, it would simply require way too much work for them to create for so few -players.
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to call bull**** on KDF being "Bonus" play. As others have said it was never meant to be Bonus content, but rather an entirely separate, distinct, and equal faction.
I think the reason it has so few players isn't because there are fewer Klingon fans, its because everything that has been released for the KDF comes off as an afterthought. If they would actually put some effort in to it then perhaps they would see the number of players on the KDF side increase.
Calling it "Bonus" play is really just an excuse and I'm a bit intolerant of excuses.
"Bonus" play translates into development laziness.
Jack Emmert: "Starfleet and Klingon. ... So two factions, full PvE content." Al Rivera hates Klingons Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert All cloaks should be canon.
I hate to say it, but revisiting the Klingon-Romulan Alliance might work.
And I do mean I HATE to say it.
In its war to eradicate Undine Meddling, the KDF has blasted and pressed into service Gorn, Orion, Naussican, and Lethian races to support the KDF's goal of defeating and removing the Undine threat from this quadrant. There is a Fed mission where you actually unknowingly insert an Undine into the Romulan Empire. What better way to bolster Redside AND appease much of the "third faction" people than to bring Romulans and their ships into our fold via a new alliance against the Federation, or a new alliance with some splinter of the Romulan Empire which has come to recognize the Undine influence on its leadership and seeks to aid the KDF in removing that influence.
Throw the Feds some Cardassian race and uniform/ship to appease them, but we all know the Romulans added to KDF-only with a believable backstory (a reinstatement of the Klingon-Romulan Alliance to fight the Undine control of the Romulan Empire works just fine) would pull more Feddies back to us.
Wampaq@Jnoh, Fleet Leader: ..Bloodbath and Beyond[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]'Iw HaH je Hoch! ALL HOLDINGS FINISHED! - Starbase 5-5-5-5 || Embassy 3-3-3 || Mine 3-3-3 || Spire 3-3-3 A laid back KDF fleet welcoming independent, casual, & part-time players and groups. Roms & alts welcome. Send in-game mail to Wampaq@Jnoh, visit our recruitment thread and FB page for more info.
KDF play is "bonus" play, not core. Federation play is the core game. KDF (Romulan, or whatever playable faction they eventually introduce) will never be as complete as Federation play, it would simply require way too much work for them to create for so few -players.
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
Don't believe the "16%" hype. This is an MMO, not a Con. What Trekkers and Trekkies want has little consequence here. Redisde properly supported in any other game does remarkably better than Cryptic gives us credit for. 16% might come redside for the love of Klingons, but far more than that are drawn to Horde, Imperials, and other redside factions in other MMOs without an existing IP's influence at all.
Cryptic seems to have chosen data which best serves them. A few moments with Google paints a much different picture of what Redside looks like when fully supported:
Unsure what other games I could dig for data on. Still looking for Cov vrs CoH, which is likely something they are looking at, as I seem to remember before NC Soft took over, the Cryptic nay-saying corporate policy had kept CoV from achieving much.
The fact that Cryptic can only muster "16%" is based on their attitude and lack of effort, NOT the influence of the Star Trek franchise and its fanbase.
PS- I seem to recall the Horde being an afterthought faction, while clearly Sith is not. So I do agree with your assessment that they needed to LAUNCH with two fully-realized factions, but I still say you can get much more out of this game's redside with a little serious effort. My gut says 1/3 of the playerbase is not an unrealistic minimum expectation for any well-balanced "Second" faction.
Wampaq@Jnoh, Fleet Leader: ..Bloodbath and Beyond[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]'Iw HaH je Hoch! ALL HOLDINGS FINISHED! - Starbase 5-5-5-5 || Embassy 3-3-3 || Mine 3-3-3 || Spire 3-3-3 A laid back KDF fleet welcoming independent, casual, & part-time players and groups. Roms & alts welcome. Send in-game mail to Wampaq@Jnoh, visit our recruitment thread and FB page for more info.
If the Dev's truly wanted to enlarge the Klingon gaming community they would have done what the players suggested, Let the Klingon's have a story line like the Fed's do. But we can all see now what the result is.
Comments
The only way it could have worked, is if they built every faction equally playable from day one. But now there's simply too much content that would have to be modified to make it work, and it just isn't worth the cost.
Sorry (and I'm not being sarcastic), but it simply isn't going to happen.
Im under the impression they have better tutorial and just have not used it yet.
R.I.P
Weak reasoning to not play KDF in my opinion.
I hate the fed blue as it hurts my eyes, yet its not the reason i do not play fed as much as i play KDF.
R.I.P
We are not looking for equality to the feds but we do expect meaningful and complete gameplay thats respectful to our fandom within the IP instead of the half assed, "but but the feds are the important players" monster play that we KDF fans feel has been shoved down our throats.
R.I.P
KDF was never meant to be so called "bonus" play as you put it, and the blame lays with Atari (and maybe CBS) who pushed STO out of the door too fast, but that's now in the past and people forget how STO/Cryptic have struggled through those years and the work is must have taken to become part of PWE certainly took its toll on overall resources.
Plus, see it from their viewpoint, S6 with its content or story based missions? Honestly, I think they made the correct decision on this as well as starting KDF at level 21 for now as I found level 6 be a real mess. Season 7 is likely the earliest we'll see the lower levels opened up...But I'd like to see the KDF levels out before a Romulan faction hits (and who is to say what form it will take, it is foolish to think otherwise without knowing facts).
Anything other than Fed is always likely to be less popular, but there is certainly growth potential for other factions though, but by how much? Taking population figures from Star Trek fandom? This is a game, not a TV show, its at best a very general guideline and at worst, misguidance.
Even the addition of the Ferasan race has had a positive impact on the population it seems and the fact that these threads keep appearing should tell you something Do you ignore your customers?
Sorry, but I'm going to have to call bull**** on KDF being "Bonus" play. As others have said it was never meant to be Bonus content, but rather an entirely separate, distinct, and equal faction.
I think the reason it has so few players isn't because there are fewer Klingon fans, its because everything that has been released for the KDF comes off as an afterthought. If they would actually put some effort in to it then perhaps they would see the number of players on the KDF side increase.
Calling it "Bonus" play is really just an excuse and I'm a bit intolerant of excuses.
Al Rivera hates Klingons
Star Trek Online: Agents of Jack Emmert
All cloaks should be canon.
You may find that playing KDF in STO is gonna push those tolerance levels a bit as many feds do not like competition for attention.
R.I.P
And I do mean I HATE to say it.
In its war to eradicate Undine Meddling, the KDF has blasted and pressed into service Gorn, Orion, Naussican, and Lethian races to support the KDF's goal of defeating and removing the Undine threat from this quadrant. There is a Fed mission where you actually unknowingly insert an Undine into the Romulan Empire. What better way to bolster Redside AND appease much of the "third faction" people than to bring Romulans and their ships into our fold via a new alliance against the Federation, or a new alliance with some splinter of the Romulan Empire which has come to recognize the Undine influence on its leadership and seeks to aid the KDF in removing that influence.
Throw the Feds some Cardassian race and uniform/ship to appease them, but we all know the Romulans added to KDF-only with a believable backstory (a reinstatement of the Klingon-Romulan Alliance to fight the Undine control of the Romulan Empire works just fine) would pull more Feddies back to us.
ALL HOLDINGS FINISHED! - Starbase 5-5-5-5 || Embassy 3-3-3 || Mine 3-3-3 || Spire 3-3-3
A laid back KDF fleet welcoming independent, casual, & part-time players and groups. Roms & alts welcome.
Send in-game mail to Wampaq@Jnoh, visit our recruitment thread and FB page for more info.
Don't believe the "16%" hype. This is an MMO, not a Con. What Trekkers and Trekkies want has little consequence here. Redisde properly supported in any other game does remarkably better than Cryptic gives us credit for. 16% might come redside for the love of Klingons, but far more than that are drawn to Horde, Imperials, and other redside factions in other MMOs without an existing IP's influence at all.
Cryptic seems to have chosen data which best serves them. A few moments with Google paints a much different picture of what Redside looks like when fully supported:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/724832-Horde-vs-Alliance-The-real-numbers
WoW: Horde = 39.40% PvE, 58.64% PvP
http://r2-db.com/article-rss/27068/interesting-stats-from-the-swtor-guild-summit
SWToR: 57% of players play Empire
Unsure what other games I could dig for data on. Still looking for Cov vrs CoH, which is likely something they are looking at, as I seem to remember before NC Soft took over, the Cryptic nay-saying corporate policy had kept CoV from achieving much.
The fact that Cryptic can only muster "16%" is based on their attitude and lack of effort, NOT the influence of the Star Trek franchise and its fanbase.
PS- I seem to recall the Horde being an afterthought faction, while clearly Sith is not. So I do agree with your assessment that they needed to LAUNCH with two fully-realized factions, but I still say you can get much more out of this game's redside with a little serious effort. My gut says 1/3 of the playerbase is not an unrealistic minimum expectation for any well-balanced "Second" faction.
ALL HOLDINGS FINISHED! - Starbase 5-5-5-5 || Embassy 3-3-3 || Mine 3-3-3 || Spire 3-3-3
A laid back KDF fleet welcoming independent, casual, & part-time players and groups. Roms & alts welcome.
Send in-game mail to Wampaq@Jnoh, visit our recruitment thread and FB page for more info.